Calendar watch day-date driving and correcting means

ABSTRACT

Independent date and day setting of a calendar watch is effected by setting the watch hands to a predetermined time followed by to-and-fro rotational movements of a crown in its time setting position to set the date and by setting the watch to a different predetermined time followed by to-and-fro move-ment of the crown also in its time setting position to set the day.

United States Patent Schneider [4 May 29, 1973 CALENDAR WATCH DAY-DATE [56] References Cited DRIVING AND CORRECTING MEANS UNITED STATES PATENTS [75] Inventor: Jean-Claude Schneider, La Chauxd y d Switzerland 3,436,905 4/1969 Giger ..5s 5s 3,695,029 10/1972 Tripet ..58/58 [73] Ass1gnee: Fabrlque dHorlogene Chs. Tissot et fi i (Canton of Primary ExaminerGeorge H. Miller, Jr.

9* Attorney-Richard K. Stevens, Davidson 0 Miller, [221 Filed: Mar. 31, 1972 Ellsworth H. Mosher et al.

[21] Appl. No.: 240,118 [57] ABSTRACT Independent date and day setting of a calendar watch [30] Foreign Apphcatmnpnonty Data is effected by setting the watch hands to a predeter- Apr. 16, 1971 Switzerland ..5566/7l mined time followed by to-and-fro rotational movements of a crown in its time setting position to set the [52] US. Cl ..58/58 d d b in th watch to a different predeter- [51] Int. Cl. ..G04b 19/24 mined time f ll d by t d f move ment f the [58] Field of Search ..58/4, 5, 6, 58

crown also in its time setting position to set the day.

9 Claims, 2' Drawing Figures CALENDAR WATCH DAY-DATE DRIVING AND CORRECTING MEANS It is known that conventional calendar watches require an arrangement for setting the calendar to the day of the week or to the date, either when first putting the watch into operation or after appreciable stoppage of the watch, or finally, as regards the particular dateindicating organ, at the end of months of fewer than thirty-one days. Presently, mechanisms are known which are of a fairly simple construction and may be easily started as regards date-setting in simple date calendar watches.

On the other hand, as regards calendar watches indicating both the date and the day of the week, the mechanisms allowing setting the desired date and day of the week involve indicating calendar organs of a fairly complicated nature or of such concepts as to affect certain characteristics of the watch. It is indeed feasible to achieve simple setting mechanisms by utilizing pushpieces mounted on the case. However, as is known, such arrangements fairly complicate the hermeticity problems of the case.

Date and day-of-the-week calendar watches are already known, which are so made that date setting may be effected by meansof the winding crown being in the position of the hour setting.

Often those watches comprise a calendar wheel or a 24-hour wheel bearing two driving organs ofwhich one is ganged to the wheel and directly meshes with the toothing of the day-of-the-week indicating organ, while the other may pull out of the way when the calendar wheel is moved backward. Thus, after having brought the hands to midnight and by a to-and-fro motion imparted to the winding crown, the date-organ is made to advance by one step for each pendular motion while the day-of-the-week indicating organ remains in place.

In these known watches, a conventional movement will drive the calendar wheel. Furthermore, the toothings of the two indicating organs are symmetric and at rest with respect to the line from the center of the movement to the center of the calendar wheel-andpinion.

These known arrangements involve such complexity that their assembly and fitting or adjustment lack the desirable speed and efficiency. Thus, the presence of a driving element which may pull out of the way when the calendar wheel rotates in the direction opposite to the one in which it is normally being driven, involves manufacture, emplacing and fitting or adjusting several parts, including a spring, the handling of which is very delicate. When the jumper usually holding the datering in position may move translationally within certain limits, difficulties are also involved in the assembly and fitting or adjustment of this part.

The purpose of the present invention is to create a calendar mechanism for a date and day-of-the-week watch that shall comprise only a minimum numberof parts which may be rapidly assembled and fitted or adjusted, such mechanism allowing separate correction for the date and theday-of-the-week by an operation meat and a correction mechanism itself comprising a calendar wheel-and-pinion and means for activating said wheel-and-pinion from the outside of the watch, this wheel-and-pinion being provided with two driving components, one of which functions in concert with the date-indicating organ and the other of which functions in concert with the day-of-the-week indicating organ, thus characterized that said driving elements are ganged to said calendar wheel-and-pinion and apart by an angle other than on said wheel-and-pinion, and that said indicating organs are kept at rest by pivoting jumpers biased by springs in such positions that their toothings are asymmetrical with respect to the line from the center common to said indicating organs to the center of said rotary wheel-and-pinion.

The attached drawing shows as an example an embodiment of the watch according to the invention.

FIG. 1 is a top view of the movement of this watch, the dial having been removed and the day-disk being shown only in fragment, and

FIG. 2 is a section along the line 11-11 and on a larger scale.

Even though the correction mechanism for the date and for the day of the week which will be described below may be so arranged in a movement as to be directly activated by the winding crown and independently of the movement, the movement shown in the drawing (nevertheless) does provide a calendar mechanism in whichthe same organs ensure the conventional commutation of the date-ring and of the day-star, also ensuring the setting of the organs when first started after a lengthy stop, or at the end of a month of fewer than thirty-one days.

To that effect, the drawing shows a watch movement of which the bottom plate 1 is provided with a central sleeve 2 through which passes arbor 3 of a second wheel-and-pinion and which guides and supports a cannon-pinion 4; the toothing of the latter engages a dialtrain wheel (not shown). An hour wheel-and-pinion 5 pivots about this cannon-pinion, the construction'of which will be described in greater detail below and which is so driven by the movement that it rotates by 360 every twelve hours. Wheels-and-pinions 4 and 5, also date-ring 6 with inside toothing 7, and a calendar wheel-and-pinion 8 are kept in place axially on bottomplate 1 by a calendar bridge 9; a day-star 10 rotates on the latter. The day-star 10 is axially kept in place by a ring 11 driven into a shoulder of calendar bridge 9. Dial 12, extending above calendar bridge 9, is provided with a date window 13 and with a window 14 indicating the day of the week, these windows being conventionally arranged. Day-star 10 is provided with a toothing 1 5 which, as shown in FIG. 2, is at a higher level than toothing 7 of the date'organ. This toothing 15 is provided with fourteen teeth and is meant to be activated once every 24 hours. On the upper surface of the periphery of day-organ 10, one finds the names of the days of the week, shown as in 16, the sequence of the seven days of the week being repeated twice. A jumper 17 provided with a peg 18 engaging a bottom-plate bore-hole is biased by strip-spring l9 and functions in concert with toothing 15 so as to keep day indicating organ in such rest positions that one of the indications 16 appears exactly in window 14 for each of those rest positions. Similarly, the thirty-one teeth toothing 7 of the date indicating organ 6 functions in concert with a jumper 20 biased by a strip-spring 21 assuring that the date-organ shall stay in such an orientation that one of the numerals 22 borne on the periphery of that organ appears in window 13.

Indicating organs 6 and 10 are driven by the hour wheel-and-pinion via the calendar wheel-and-pinion 8. To that effect, the hour wheel-and-pinion 5 is made up of two components ganged to each other and of which one is a thin and flat disk 23 constituting the hour-wheel proper and provided with a toothing 24 enmeshing the pinion of the dial-train wheel. This disk 23 is fastened to a plastic element which is a part of the hour-wheel assembly 5. It may be directly molded onto disk 23 and it comprises a central hub 25 provided with pegs 26 that engage corresponding openings in disk 23. Above the hub 25 there is a cylindrical sleeve 27 which constitutes the hour-wheel and ensures that wheel-andpinion 5 may pivot round the cannon-pinion 4; at its upper end, cylindrical sleeve 27 carries the hour-hand 28. Further, the central hub is so punched out as to be provided with three small elastic tongues 29 120 apart and extending from its periphery to its central opening. These elastic little tongues terminate in bulges 30 which are thicker than the tongues and which as shown in the drawing when wheel-and-pinion 5 has been assembled, press elastically against the underside of bridge 9. These little tongues ensure there is no axial shake of the hour wheel-and-pinion and of the cannonpinion and thus allows steady functioning of those wheels-and-pinions. A peripheral segment of the described plastic element extends around the central hub 25 and the little tongues 29; this plastic element is in the shape of arc-of-circle 31 of about 290 and of a toothed sector 32 with three teeth flat at their ends;

these ends are at a distance from the axis of the wheeland-pinion exceeding the radius of the arc-of-circle 31. These teeth are meant to enmesh with the calendar wheel-and-pinion 8; the latter is located between hour wheel-and-pinion 5 and the periphery of the movement and pivots about a peg 33 of the bottom plate. This wheel-and-pinion 8 may also be embodied as a plastic part made according to known methods of compression-molding; it comprises a plate 34 and a hollow cylinder 35. A radial finger-piece 36 extends from the end of hollow cylinder as shown by FIG. 2, this fingerpiece is located at the level of toothing 15 of the daystar and may engage this toothing. Further, a second f'mger-piece 37 of cylindrical shape projects from plate 34; finger-piece 37 is at the level of toothing 7 of the date-organ and will describe a circular path leading it into toothing 7 when wheel-and-pinion 8 rotates about its axis. Plate 34 is provided with a toothing on its periphery; this toothing consists of two toothed sectors 38 and 39 each of four teeth and of the same pitch as toothed sector 32. These two diametrically opposite sectors 38 and 39 are separated by two tooth-to-tooth or entre-dent gaps 40 and 41 which are of lesser depths than those found between the teeth in sectors 38 and 39 and of a slightly larger pitch. Description of wheel-and-pinion 8 shall be concluded by observing that one of the tooth-to-tooth gaps within toothed sector 39 is provided with a notch 42. This notch, however, assumes no functional role. It is merely provided to allow molding wheel-and-pinion 8. On the other hand, it should be noted that when sectors 38 and 39 are so made they may enmesh with sector 32 of the hour wheel-and-pinion 5, tooth-to-tooth gaps 40 and 41 are such that when one is opposite the arc-of-circle part of wheel-and-pinion 5, the two teeth which aredefining it are practically touching this part of the arc-ofcircle, and wheel-and-pinion 8 is immobilized.

It will be noted that the gear system consisting of wheel-and-pinion 5 and of calendar wheel-and-pinion 8 in a manner of speaking makes up a modified Maltese cross gearing. Each of the sectors 38 and 39 assumes the role of one of the tooth-space between two teeth of the Maltese cross wheel and the toothed sector 32 assumes the role of the unique tooth of the wheel driving such gearing or stopwork. On the other hand, one will observe that such an arrangement allows achieving a gearing of which the demultiplication ratio is appreciable. For each rotation of the wheel-and-pinion 5, the three teeth of sector 32 successively will enmesh each of the three tooth-to-tooth gaps of one of the sectors 38 and 39, causing a rotation of 180 in wheel-and-pinion 8 by bringing one of the tooth-to-tooth gaps 40 or 41 opposite that part which is an arc of circle 31. Wheeland-pinion 8 thereafter will remain stationary until the first tooth of toothed sector 32 will again enmesh one of the teeth bounding the tooth-to-tooth gap opposite the leading wheel-and-pinion. On the other hand, wheel-and-pinion 8 will rotate at a fairly high speed during its own displacement. Driving finger-pieces 36 and 37 being at different heights, each one will only act in concert with one of the indicating organs 6 or 10; for every two revolutions of the hour wheel-and-pinion, the driving finger-pieces 36 and 37 will mesh with the toothing of that organ they function within concert and they will activate it by one pitch or step. The described calendar wheel-and-pinion therefore ensures the automatic commutation of the two organs 6 and 10 once a day, starting from the hour wheel-and-pinion 5, and at a fairly high speed. This is so because for the arrangement described above, the duration of the commutation of the date-organ is about half an hour and that of the day-organ about three-fourths of an hour.

On the other hand, because of the particular arrangement of the described mechanism, date-setting and day-of-the-week setting may be achieved independently one from the other by means of to-and-fro rotational motions imparted to the winding stem by a crown, the latter being in the position for time-setting. It should be noted that to that end, jumpers 17 and 20 are so located that for the rest positions of organs 6 and 10, toothings 7 and 15 are located asymmetrically with respect to the line from the center of the movement to the center of rotation of wheel-and-pinion 8. FIG. 1 shows the hour wheel-and-pinion 5 rotating clockwise; therefore, when sector 32 activates wheel-and-pinion 8, the latter is made to rotate counter-clockwise. One may observe that the tooth of wheel-and-pinion 6 which will contact finger-piece 37 is slightly to the right of that center line, whereas the tooth of wheeland-pinion I0 which will contact finger-piece 36 is slightly to the left of that center line. The result is that the indicating organs 6 and 10 are only activated when wheel-and-pinion 8 rotates counter-clockwise. If this wheel-and-pinion is activated clockwise by means of but this displacement will not sufiice to make the jumper functioning in concert with this organ pass above the top of one of these teeth and induce commutation. Thus, by a to-and-fro motion imparted to the winding crown previously set in the time-setting position, one may achieve a step-wise advance of the datering 6 and also of the day-of-the-week star 10. On the other hand, the two finger-pieces 36 and 37 not being diametrically opposite on wheel-and-pinion 8 but to the contrary subtending between them an angle of the order of 135, the commutation of the two indicating organs will be effected when the wheel-and-pinion 8 rotates counter-clockwise and not exactly at the same time. This ensues from the described arrangement in which the time-gap between the two commutations is of the order of 30-45 minutes. During normal operation of the watch, this time-gap is of no practical significance because, as an example, the date may be so adjusted that it will commutate exactly at midnight whereas the day-of-the-week may commutate between 0 h 30 and 1 hour; then the day-star shall begin to be subjected to a slight displacement starting approximately at midnight, and in this fashion the watch user may become aware during the period from midnight to one oclock that a change of dayof-the-week is taking place. On the other hand, this time-gap is of great significance for achieving correction; it allows embodying, by means of the extremely simple mechanism that has just been described, independent corrections for the date and for the day of the week. After having set the hands approximately on the midnight position and by imparting a to-and-fro motion to the winding crown, one may induce a step-by-step advance in date-organ alone; it suffices that the magnitude of the motion imparted to the hour wheel-and-pinion be approximately of the order of 1% hours; then, bringing the hands to the one oclock position approximately and imparting a t0-and-fro rotational motion of approximately 1% hours amplitude to wheel-and-pinion 5, a step-by-step advance of the day-of-the-week indicating organ 10 is achieved.

The mechanism described above may be incorporated into any date and day-of-the-week calendar watch, whether with a mechanical or with an electrical movement. The diverse components of this mechanism, such as the wheel-and-pinions 8 and 5, may also be executed in a manner different from that illustrated in the drawing. Further, as already mentioned at the beginning, one may embody a wheel-and-pinion such as wheel-and-pinion 8 functioning in concert with the peripheral elements of wheel-and-pinion 5 in such manner as to serve solely for correction, wheel-andpinion 8 for instance being brought into active position by an axial displacement when the winding crown is being put into the correction position. In such case, automatic commutation of the date and day-of-the-week indicating organs might be achieved by other means controlled from the movement.

I claim:

1. A calendar watch comprising date and day-of-theweek indicating organs and coaxially located on the movement, further a correction mechanism itself comprising a calendar wheel-and-pinion and means for activating said wheel-and-pinion from the outside of the watch, this wheel-and-pinion being provided with two driving elements, one of which functions in concert with the date-indicating organ and the other of which functions in concert with the day-of-the-week indicating organ, thus characterized in that said driving elements are fastened to said calendar wheel-and-pinion and are apart, one from another, on said wheel-andpinion, by an angle NOT 180, and that said indicating organs are kept at rest by pivoting jumpers biased by springs into such positions that their toothings are asymmetric with respect to the line from the common center of said indicating organs to the center of said rotating wheeland-pinion.

2. A calendar watch according to claim 1, thus characterized in that the movements hour wheel is made up of a flat disk fastened to a plastic part comprising a sleeve acting as the pipe of the hour wheel, a peripheral part in the shape of a toothed disk driving said calendar wheel-and-pinion and is further made up of at least one element elastically connected to said sleeve and so made as to press against an element of the movement frame to eliminate axial play in the hour wheeland-pinion.

3. A calendar watch according to claim 1, thus characterized in that the two driving elements are located at difierent levels and mesh, the one with the inside toothing of a date ring, the other with the outer toothing of a day-of-the-week disk.

4. A calendar watch according to claim 3, thus characterized in that the toothing of the day-of-the-week disk is of fourteen teeth and that this disk presents on its periphery the sequence of the days of the week, repeated twice.

5. A calendar watch according to claim 3, thus characterized in that said calendar wheel-and-pinion is of one piece of a plastic material and comprises a disk with said toothed sectors and a hub, one of the driving elements extending laterally from said hub above a cutout in the disk.

6. A calendar watch according to claim 1, thus characterized in that said calendar wheel-and-pinion is coupled by means of gearing to the movements hour wheel-and-pinion, the gearing imparting a rapid rotation of one-half revolution to said calendar wheel-andpinion during each full revolution of the said hour wheel-and-pinion.

7. A calendar watch according to claim 6, thus characterized in that the angular separation between the driving elements fastened to said calendar wheel-andpinion is of the order of 8. A calendar watch according to claim 7, thus characterized in that said calendar wheel-and-pinion is provided on its periphery with diametrically opposite toothed sectors which are separated by intervals longer than one pitch of the toothing of said sectors, and that the hour wheel-and-pinion comprises a disk of which part of the periphery is in the form of an arc-of-circle capable of immobilizing the calendar wheel-and-pinion by functioning in concert with the extreme, opposite teeth of the two sectors and further comprises a toothed sector capable of functioning in concert with the sectors of the calendar wheel-and-pinion.

9. A calendar watch according to claim 8, thus characterized in that the toothed sector of disk fastened to the hour wheel-and-pinion comprises three teeth whereas each toothed sector of the calendar wheeland-pinion comprises four teeth.

I i =0 k 

1. A calendar watch comprising date and day-of-the-week indicating organs and coaxially located on the movement, further a correction mechanism itself comprising a calendar wheel-andpinion and means for activating said wheel-and-pinion from the outside of the watch, this wheel-and-pinion being provided with two driving elements, one of which functions in concert with the date-indicating organ and the other of which functions in concert with the day-of-the-week indicating organ, thus characterized in that said driving elements are fastened to said calendar wheeland-pinion and are apart, one from another, on said wheel-andpinion, by an angle NOT 180*, and that said indicating organs are kept at rest by pivoting jumpers biased by springs into such positions that their toothings are asymmetric with respect to the line from the common center of said indicating organs to the center of said rotating wheel-and-pinion.
 2. A calendar watch according to claim 1, thus characterized in that the movement''s hour wheel is made up of a flat disk fastened to a plastic part comprising a sleeve acting as the pipe of the hour wheel, - a peripheral part in the shape of a toothed disk driving said calendar wheel-and-pinion - , and is further made up of at least one element elastically connected to said sleeve and so made as to press against an element of the movement frame to eliminate axial play in the hour wheel-and-pinion.
 3. A calendar watch according to claim 1, thus characterized in that the two driving elements are located at different levels and mesh, the one with the inside toothing of a date ring, the other with the outer toothing of a day-of-the-week disk.
 4. A calendar watch according to claim 3, thus characterized in that the toothing of the day-of-the-week disk is of fourteen teeth and that this disk presents on its periphery the sequence of the days of the week, repeated twice.
 5. A calendar watch according to claim 3, thus characterized in that said calendar wheel-and-pinion is of one piece of a plastic material and comprises a disk with said toothed sectors and a hub, one of the driving elements extending lateRally from said hub above a cut-out in the disk.
 6. A calendar watch according to claim 1, thus characterized in that said calendar wheel-and-pinion is coupled by means of gearing to the movement''s hour wheel-and-pinion, the gearing imparting a rapid rotation of one-half revolution to said calendar wheel-and-pinion during each full revolution of the said hour wheel-and-pinion.
 7. A calendar watch according to claim 6, thus characterized in that the angular separation between the driving elements fastened to said calendar wheel-and-pinion is of the order of 135*.
 8. A calendar watch according to claim 7, thus characterized in that said calendar wheel-and-pinion is provided on its periphery with diametrically opposite toothed sectors which are separated by intervals longer than one pitch of the toothing of said sectors, and that the hour wheel-and-pinion comprises a disk of which part of the periphery is in the form of an arc-of-circle capable of immobilizing the calendar wheel-and-pinion by functioning in concert with the extreme, opposite teeth of the two sectors and further comprises a toothed sector capable of functioning in concert with the sectors of the calendar wheel-and-pinion.
 9. A calendar watch according to claim 8, thus characterized in that the toothed sector of disk fastened to the hour wheel-and-pinion comprises three teeth whereas each toothed sector of the calendar wheel-and-pinion comprises four teeth. 